frierevsfrierenTell them apart

Which to use

“friere” and “frieren” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,689
“friere” frequency rank
#23,522
“frieren” frequency rank
73211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature friere frieren
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs frieren Kälte empfinden, wegen der Kälte sich unwohl fühlen, niedrige Temperaturen fühlen

Where the eye mixes friere and frieren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. friere runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against frieren's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
friere
7 ch
frieren

Visual trap between friere and frieren

A purely visual mix-up. friere ([ˈfʁiːʁə]) and frieren ([ˈfʁiːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “friere” sits inside “frieren”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

friere is recorded at frequency rank #49,689, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁiːʁə]. frieren is at rank #23,522, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfʁiːʁən].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 73211, this pair ranks #366,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of friere vs frieren

Shared letters: efir. Private to "friere": -. Private to "frieren": n.

"friere" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "frieren" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • friereffriere · firere · frierre · friree · frriere · rfiere
  • frierenffrieren · fireren · freiren · frieern · frierenn · frierne · frierren · frireen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "friere" for "frieren" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfʁiːʁə] versus [ˈfʁiːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "friere" or "frieren"?
"frieren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,522 in our German list, against #49,689 for "friere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "friere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frieren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,655 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "friere" and "frieren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "friere vs Friese". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #366,655 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list